August 17, 2006

By Lauren Heaton

The housing stock in Yellow Springs is sure to increase over the next few years, but by how many houses and exactly when is difficult to say for the three development teams whose plans for new residential neighborhoods were approved by the Village over the past year. Together, the developments of Glenwood Springs, Thistle Creek and the Stancliff Neighborhood foretell an addition of 67 homes to the village. But so far, there are still a lot of trees and empty lots waiting to be claimed and built up.

Glenwood Springs, a 20-acre planned unit development located on the Birch III property between Glen View Road and Stewart Street, was approved by the Village in July 2005. Since then, Purple Sage developers Doug Eastham and Mark Bertke have installed the infrastructure, including sewer, water and roads for all 35 of the anticipated lots, Eastham said this week.

According to Eastham, Purple Sage has contracts with two buyers, both of them Yellow Springs residents, whose custom-built homes are expected to be about 2,200 square feet and are estimated to cost $400,000 each. The speculative house at the south end of Glenwood Springs was finished last month, Eastham said, and the foundation of the subdivision’s first commissioned home was started this spring. He anticipates starting on the second home in a few weeks.

The process of selling homes at Glenwood Springs has been slower than is typical for Eastham’s other developments in the region, he said. But custom-built homes are a “different animal” than he is used to, and he said he could not estimate how long it would take to fill the plat. Eastham said he faced some unanticipated delays earlier in the year, but he would not specify what those were.

The Thistle Creek neighborhood, located off of King Street between the Glass Farm and the First Baptist Church, and originally developed by Phillips-Brown Homes, was approved by the Village in December 2005. Ground has not yet been broken for the 22 homes planned on 4.2 acres, but developer Jonathan Brown has contracts for five market rate homes, in addition to the six homes Home, Inc. agreed to purchase last year in Thistle Creek, he said on Monday.

Several of the market rate homes are being purchased by Yellow Springs residents and two are being purchased by Northridge and Oakwood residents, according to Brown. The homes are expected to vary from 1,000 to 2,000 square feet, he said, and many of the buyers have expressed interest in south-facing windows for solar heat and maintaining existing trees on the property for their summer shade and natural cooling effect.

The Home, Inc. homes, intended to be affordable, are between 1,000 and 1,300 square feet, and the buyers are expected to be a mix of Yellow Springs and area residents, Brown said. All the homes in Thistle Creek will vary in cost from $140,000 to $350,000, he said.

Cathy Phillips of Phillips-Brown Homes, Inc., left the partnership with Brown last winter, left partly because the time commitment required was bigger than she had expected, Phillips said. Brown joined with Ronald Stickelman, an owner of Stickelman, Schneider and Associates appraisal company. The two plan to incorporate as Stickelman-Brown Homes, Inc., and begin installing the plat’s infrastructure within the next few weeks, Brown said. Brown said he plans to start the first Home, Inc. homes next month and hopes to be done with them by next spring.

Brown, who has developed homes at Park Meadows on Dayton Street, at Littlewood on Green Street, and at Kingsfield Court east of King Street, said he has been surprised at how “bureaucratic and slow” the process of developing a neighborhood has become. Last spring he presented informal concept plans for St. Paul’s Crossing, a second, denser development just west of Thistle Creek. The plan for St. Paul’s Crossing includes 27 attached units. He has not yet submitted the St. Paul’s Crossing concept plan for official approval, Brown said.

Just last month the Village approved plans for the 1.7-acre Stancliff Neighborhood, located along Dayton Street east of the Antioch Company. Stancliff developers Suzanne Clauser and Mike Alexander had hoped to begin excavating the plat this month, Clauser said. But the Village approval process for the development’s 10 homes took longer than expected, according to Clauser, who said she hopes to find a contractor and begin installing the infrastructure within the next few weeks.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com